“So this is your dropout classmate?” Eve’s boyfriend asked. He faced me with his arms crossed as I entered the Sunken Crypts.
[Cupcake Crew] Sullivan clearly went to the gym in real life. He was a few years older than Eve and I, with a short-shaved intimidating head. His arms were thicker than my legs, and his dragonskin leather armor complemented the shape of his c...
2025-10-25 16:05:59 +0000 UTC View Post“How was your night?” Mitch, her personal assistant, asked with a wide smile, though fake, as he took off his shoes. “Did you sleep well?”
Veyra lay lifelessly in her game pod. She smelled horrible. Her face must have been a mess. She still felt sick to her stomach.
Did she fucking sleep well?
“No,” she said curtly. “I did not.”
Mitch looked sad to hear t...
2025-10-25 15:47:02 +0000 UTC View PostRayshire was the opening city of the Ray Dragon event. I spawned at the end of the tunnel in the volcano that separated the event from the regular game. On this side, the humongous volcano appeared more like a gigantic wall spanning well into the sky.
A few players were climbing down, having crossed the volcano from above. Nothing stopped players from entering the event grounds in whateve...
2025-10-25 15:31:04 +0000 UTC View PostHe looked like he liked me… Veyra thought.
It was a sad thought. The assassin player had been pretty good in terms of controlling his character. He’d clearly practiced combat for many many hours, just like her. He was moderately funny, and he had a nice face, at least in game. Black hair fit him well. He could have been a good ally. Maybe a friend.
And now he was just a...
2025-10-25 15:03:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe lid of the game pod opened. Ender’s Cafe was still silent, with customers still in their game pods. My dad didn’t seem to be present.
I stretched, feeling aches here and there, as if I’d just woken up from a quick nap. The feeling wasn’t awful. Playing in game pods was much healthier on the body compared to headsets.
I spotted Evelyn resting her chin on her hand behind t...
2025-10-25 14:33:21 +0000 UTC View Post“You defeated them!” Olaf, the dragonborn village chief, gushed. “You actually did it. I can’t believe it!”
A system notification suggested two dialogue options again, which were, “Of course, I’ll help any day!” and “So where are the rewards?”
Veyra spoke first, choosing neither option. “Yeah, we’re kinda awesome like that,” she said. “C...
2025-10-25 13:56:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe misty mountains fell quiet with everyone dead. A wyvern screeched somewhere in the distance. The humid air felt a little chilly. Monsters didn’t seem to attack us, and the area felt safe.
I’d never held this much money in my inventory at once.
I let out a stupefied laugh. “Did we just beat a full guild? Mythforged?”
A gust of wind grabbed Veyra’s hair. She shrugg...
2025-10-25 13:42:00 +0000 UTC View Post[Time Eruption] dealt area damage to everyone within fifty feet of its caster. A wide-scale AoE spell, dealing more damage the more it was charged. Like most time magic spells, it ignored 50% of the targets’ armor, and I knew I’d die if I got hit.
I had, however, seen one way to dodge it in a clip online. The method was a bit stupid, but it was better than dying,
I got up close ...
2025-10-25 12:30:12 +0000 UTC View PostBlades collided, and Vivi was blown back, crashing against a wall behind her.
The wall was, of course, really just a part of the behemoth’s intestines. It buckled inward by Vivi’s weight, as if she’d hit a soft pillow. Ether began welling up all around her. The wall tried to trap her.
Vivi growled, pushing ten thousand ether into Lucius’s reserves as she slashed wildly aroun...
2025-10-25 12:05:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe carriages were about to intersect at the exact same time. The coincidence was definitely curated by the system AI to make the quest work.
I hid atop a misty tree branch a few hundred feet from the intersection, where I hoped I’d be hidden from both sides. I activated [Eavesdrop], and my hearing greatly increased.
The mist made it difficult to see, but the two participants were...
2025-10-24 17:47:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment she entered the tunnel within the behemoth, tendrils with sharp tips lashed out at her like a wall of spears.
She turned sideways, giving the spears less points to pierce her, and held Grandpa’s greatsword as a shield. The move felt silly, but natural at the same time; one spear collided with the sword, the rest thrusting past her. They whipped around in an attempt to strangl...
2025-10-24 11:23:40 +0000 UTC View PostI wished Olaf goodbye, promising to defend the holy spring by any means necessary, though I knew full well that his precious egg would most likely end up cracked in someone else’s quest completion screen. If I could defend it, that would be a dream—I’d actually close in on the gap between the top players, and I could pay rent for multiple months, but I wasn’t counting on success.
...
2025-10-23 17:04:34 +0000 UTC View PostI woke up inside a small, shabby wooden cottage with a straw-bed. The window was open. Or rather, the window was just a hole in the wall. Mist from outside flowed in, filling the cottage with humidity.
In real life, the mist probably wasn’t healthy for the building itself. The wooden walls would have taken in the moisture and started rotting. In Wonderwind, however, the mist gave me a r...
2025-10-23 17:01:26 +0000 UTC View PostEnder’s Cafe wasn’t the best by any objective metric. Their pods weren’t even that cheap to rent. But when stepping in, it was clear that this place just got it.
The entrance led straight downstairs. A wooden scent welcomed me into a dim and atmospheric basement that used to belong to a club. Floor lamps offered just enough light to see where to step, and the rest of the li...
2025-10-23 16:40:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe motors of my virtual headset buzzed as I was forcibly logged off of Wonderwind, sent into the real world.
A jarring change of scenery followed. The scents of pleasant forestry from in-game were all replaced by the very real smell of forgotten cup noodles on my nightstand. I woke up in darkness, the only light coming from the blinking red light of my headset.
“Low battery,<...
2025-10-23 16:22:49 +0000 UTC View PostMagma sprayed from Oblivara’s greatsword onto the trees behind as the giant knight [Swung] at me.
The blade slashed with superhuman force, but its trajectory was predictable. I ducked underneath. My muscles were tested to their limits, but I managed to dodge with simple movement alone, no special skills required.
No, I didn’t use [Dodge]. That would have left the fight up to cha...
2025-10-23 16:19:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello again! I've been cooking up a new story for the last month or so, and I think it's time to start posting. Everything is still a bit of a work in progress, including the cover, which is currently AI, but I hope you like it!
The schedule is a bit of a question still, but I'll drop chapters as I have them ready and edited. The first ten or so chapters will be free to non-supporters as ...
2025-10-23 16:18:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe greatsword glowed inside, taken straight from the forge—though the veins were hard to decipher. Just like with Abyss Destroyer, the surface of the sword appeared alive by the ether flowing within, though this sword was not the color of a dark void. It was a pale, heavenly white. Parts of it appeared like a rainbow. A wave of ether passed, and a subtle orange glowed within the met...
2025-10-23 10:47:14 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s not firing!” a panicked voice shouted, coming from one of the former ballista operators, now an engineer of the slingshot launcher.
The second iteration slingshot launcher was connected to its triangular support platform, designed to receive recoil instead of blowing it all on the shooter’s face. Despite that, a string was attached to the trigger for a safer test run.
...
2025-10-22 11:28:57 +0000 UTC View PostCoshi charged forward, slingshot launcher in hand.
Another thorn vine released; she jumped to the side. Carefully, to not shake the missile inside the barrel, as that could apparently destroy the weapon. She dodged, the shockwave of the impact behind her flaring her hair.
She continued running. The boss was so large it felt as if she was already right beside it, four hundred feet mu...
2025-10-21 10:39:42 +0000 UTC View PostVivi discussed with Civar regarding the possibility of creating true ascension skills for metal using the enhancement strings. After a lengthy session of theorizing and attempting different combinations, they agreed that ascending metal was most likely possible, but achieving it would be too complex given the timeframe of one day. Going forward, Vivi would draw an ascension skill for C...
2025-10-20 10:08:21 +0000 UTC View PostThomas’s eyes were spinning as he sat on his anvil, staring at the set of veins balanced upright on his vise. The veins created a tall and thick network, easily larger than the greatswords Vivi seemed to wield, but Thomas couldn’t exactly make it smaller, considering the sheer amount of stalks and branches inside. The blacksmithing process would be a nightmare, he already knew.
The ab...
2025-10-19 11:16:24 +0000 UTC View PostPatryn wiped the sweat off his forehead, handed over his slingshot launcher to the reloading team and called, “Reload!”
The command was self-evident, of course. The single job of the team behind him was to apply the enhancement string to missiles, and to safely reload Patryn’s launcher after he fired. Nonetheless, he shouted the command. Whenever dozens of monster auras coated the b...
2025-10-18 11:03:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe girl wore some of the nicest clothes Vivi had seen. The idea of teleporting away was forgotten as Vivi admired the outfit.
The girl’s raincoat was black like Grandpa’s, though hers was also colorful, with bright pink flowers drawn onto the fabric. The colors shone vaguely with ether, taking in some of the girl’s aura. Dark green leaves mixed with the flowers along with a yellow ...
2025-10-17 09:58:22 +0000 UTC View Post“No, the barrel will overheat in an instant from the spin,” Freyven was saying to his team as Vivi walked up to their U-shaped table. “The grooves are most likely the best choice, though inside-carving will be required for the rifling to withstand the missile.”
The demons barely spotted her coming, too engrossed in work. The table was even more cluttered than before, not only with...
2025-10-16 10:35:29 +0000 UTC View Post“I can now ascend safely with around eight thousand wisps,” Vivi said.
“No you can’t,” her teacher said immediately and with his arms crossed.
Vivi waited for him to continue, but Tsarvan left his statement at that, as if accusing her of lying. The staredown became awkward, and Vivi’s eyes wandered to the hardstone walls of the palace.
“It’s true, though,” sh...
2025-10-15 11:04:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe sword crushed the sand golem to bits. One slash—one effortless little swing across its chest—and the blade ate its skin like cutting through yoghurt.
Nevermind the fact that the sword extruded no aura and only had two runes with no veins lining its surface, having been delivered to him less than two days after Fang placed his order. And nevermind the fact that golems were the toug...
2025-10-14 10:22:09 +0000 UTC View Post“It has been confirmed now that a storm is building three miles outside Ranewal’s outskirts,” Helegar, the sub-sovereign of Ythar’s north canton, said.
He was dressed casually in a sweater and vest, watching the view outside of his palace window and facing away from Veronica. The man was one of the three canton leaders of the surface, directly underneath Ythar himself on the hiera...
2025-10-14 10:21:30 +0000 UTC View PostVivi was strangely nervous as she headed up the street, toward the mines. It had been a while since she checked up on Eem. Multiple days. Enough that Eem was probably panicking, wondering if she’d been abandoned again.
She had hoped to visit more often. But with storm season as hectic as it was, she just didn’t have time. So far, however, she hadn’t received any complaints from upse...
2025-10-13 10:01:56 +0000 UTC View PostWith the monsters cleared from their immediate surroundings, the ballistics team performed more test fires. The durability and reliability of the slingshot launcher was further stressed, and the accuracy was calculated.
Neither scored particularly amazing. The smaller parts of the slingshot launcher tended to break on just about every launch. The barrel itself already received deep scrape...
2025-10-12 10:28:40 +0000 UTC View Post